Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may be used for commercial and recreational purposes. A landing detection system associated with a UAV is designed to reliably detect when the UAV has landed and remains landed such that a disarmed state can be safely implemented. A disarmed state is one in which motors do not provide power, for example, to rotors of the UAV. Existing landing detection systems either require an extended time period to elapse before a landed state is set or suffer from false detections or missed detections of the landed state of the UAV. A false landing detection can result in the UAV being disarmed while still in the air, leading to an undesired impact with the ground or other objects proximate to the UAV.
Landing detection systems often rely on a combination of GPS data, accelerometer data, gyroscope data, and barometer data to determine the landed state. However, aerodynamic ground effects may have a negative impact on barometer readings. Furthermore, GPS sensors may experience signal deterioration close to the ground due to multipath effects. Additionally, accelerometer and gyroscope readings may saturate due to shocks experienced by the UAV upon touch down. Each of these complications may impact the accuracy of landing detection in singular landing tests implemented by traditional landing detection systems.